A review of tonight's "Community" coming up just as soon as I honor the pinky swear of a degenerate...

When I reviewed "Pillows and Blankets" a few weeks ago, I noted that "the best 'Community' parody episodes tend to remember that they're an episode of 'Community' first and a parody of something second." "Basic Lupine Urology" turns out to be an exception to that rule. There's no real character arc to speak of — there's a half-hearted attempt to do one of those plots where Jeff drags Annie down to his level, but it's so routine as to be easily ignored — but the transplanting of the classic "Law & Order" formula to the halls of Greendale is so perfectly done that it carried the episode.

Your mileage will obviously vary depending on how much affection you have for the late "L&O" mothership. I used to watch a ton of it in the old days, and clearly writer Megan Ganz and director Rob Schrab have spent a lot of time studying the show to so perfectly capture all of its rhythms and tropes: the way the victim is always found by two strangers in mid-conversation, the way every police interview is conducted with someone who's too busy working to stop while they chat (the atmosphere of the Fat Neil scene in the administrative office, where everyone seemed overheated and overworked, was perfect) and how every "L&O" scene is as short as possible(*), all the way through to the familiar post-trial bull session where Adam Schiff would inevitably get a call about some tragic post-script to their case, here with the death of Starburns in a meth lab explosion.(**)

(*) Two excellent examples of using this brevity for the sake of a joke: 1)Britta is offering to use her psych knowledge to help with the case, but we cut away in mid-sentence because it's an offer not worth acknowledging; 2)We jump in on the Magnitude interview with Abed repeating what Magnitude told him so Magnitude only has to say "Pop pop!" (Though interestingly, Magnitude does yell, "Hey, that's mine!" when Jeff starts dropping the yams.)

(**) Rest in peace, Alex Osbourne. Curious if anyone felt the off-camera death ruined the mood, or if it was okay given the context of the spoof.

The regulars (save Pierce and Britta, who were marginalized) fit seamlessly into their new roles: Troy and Abed as the detectives (at one point switching between good and bad cop), Shirley as Lt. Van Buren, Jeff as Jack McCoy and Annie as the attractive deputy DA of your choosing, Professor Kane as the judge (Michael Kenneth Williams guested three different times on "Law & Order," after all), etc., to the point where it felt perfectly natural that when Leslie Hendrix — helpful coroner Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers from the "L&O" franchise — turned up to dissect the yam, it felt perfectly natural to see her alongside Troy and Abed.

There were also plenty of good jokes inserted within the parody, like Annie and Lt. Colonel Archwood saying biased things about witnesses ("a Holocaust-denying 9/11 pedophile") to influence the jury even as they know they'll be stricken, or Dean Pelton's uniform fetish coming out. The episode even worked in a couple of small meta jokes unrelated to "Law & Order," with Troy wearing a Spider-Man tie in several scenes, and Pelton practically having an orgasm after Kane said, Omar-style, "A man's gotta have a code."

So, no, this was not in any way deep. We didn't learn anything new about our regular characters, and though one of the recurring ones got killed off, that was also in service of the joke. But sometimes, if the parody is done with enough thought and love and care, that can work, too.

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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What an excellent episode!!!! Definitely one of my favorite themed episodes of Community and definitely better than any episode of Law & Order (which I’m not a fan of since I’m a law major and see the stupidity of the show). So many great moments like Abed’s outburst and the great Wire reference with the great Michael K. Williams.

ironically while this was a parody of L&O, it could also be seen as a parody of Castle, which in recent weeks has relied so heavily on the L&O formula that it has taken out all of the enjoyment I once got out of it.

It wasn't really a M*A*S*H* nod. As Alan points out, this was a pretty standard way for a Law & Order episode to end. The demise of a victim or star eyewitness was a common "twist" during the post-trial bull sessions. They weren't referencing Col. Blake's death any more than L&O was when it did similar things.

Alex's death at the end was a little jarring. It was a pitch perfect episode with comically low stakes up to that point and end just seemed a little too serious. I think they could have accomplished the same goal without killing him off. That being said, this was easily one of my top five favorite episodes.

No, it took the actions straight on to their consequences -- a meth lab in a car is damn serious, and if it was jarring to hear, it was more jarring, afterwards, to realize that the entire group ignored Alex's cry for help, from the administrators and teachers on down.

If they held Alex accountable for the thefts, and stopped his meth lab construction, even through jailing him, he'd still be alive -- but, they didn't. In playing their little game, with low stakes, they ignored the higher one... again.

It was a play on the kind of endings Law and Order sometimes had in its mildly artsy peak era of the late 90s.

Like a gang member would get acquitted and then they'd at the very end learn he was gunned down in the parking lot or a woman has a case involving her pregnancy and then we hear at the very end she had a miscarriage. The show used to go for a kind of jazzy, downbeat realism.

Plus many fans know Starburns is a writer so it's not like the character dying would mean he's no longer with the show so it was very low stakes.

Forgetting the premise of the episode, Alex was a guy who we never really knew past him being a drug dealer with star burns; dying in an unfortunate accident almost feels right with how little he grew.

I kept waiting for it to be a joke, but nothing came. Then later I read that before tonight's episode some fans speculated that Leonard would be killed off... man, I am so glad I don't pay attention to promos or speculations. I had no clue tonight and I think I enjoyed the episode more.

Probably too busy being Munch full time on SVU. Remember, that's still on the air, and if NBC doesn't cancel it, he'll exceed Kelsey Grammer and James Arness for consecutive years playing the same character.

darn it!(I rewatched 30 Rock and then tried Community but I was falling asleep, so I gave up). Sadly (?) I have only seen L&O when they had a guest star I wanted to see (was Ellen Pompeo on twice, or was that CSI?) so I didn't know all the little quirks. it was great to read about them. I did adore the Glee Parody. Granted, it was more Invasion of the Body Snatchers - which I also never saw but was easy to expect - but the hammering on "regionals" was great, and I love musicals. musical parody, even better)

YES! I figured Abed doing pulling a Lenny temper tantrum on the Asst. District Atty was the gimme for that. There were so many great touches to this one, but my favorite has to be how they carefully matched the diffuse lighting in the wide shots of the Dean's office in the closing, but only in the wide shots (so old school L&O). Damn that was a great parody.

Although I got the significance of the Spiderman tie, I also flashed back to that obnoxious red plaid tie that Logan always wore. And with all due respect, I think that Abed was channeling Logan more than Briscoe. Logan was always more of a hothead.

I just remember Lenny going ballistic a couple times when the system would fail for whatever reason, getting all irritated and sarcastic in Lenny's special way. I do agree though: knocking stuff off the desk is more of a Logan move. Logan was always a hothead (hence his climactic exit from the series).

Joel, in the Zombie episode, everyone got infected. But Troy was able to turn down the temperatures to prevent folks from actually dying (due to their fevers). No one was actually dead--they just had really, really, REALLY bad flu symptoms.

Very funny. And I've never watched a full episode of L&O or any of its variants in my life (just not my kind of show). But I've seen enough snippets on in the background or spoofs or whatever to enjoy all the obvious parodies, and I'm sure I still missed a ton as a non-viewer. Loved the boiling water gotcha at the end (it was almost Columbo-like!)

I was totally surprised by the death of starburns; but did immediately figure that must be a part of that parody and that L&O eps must end on horrible unexpected news. That was extreme though! Curious if his death will be returned to next week. I so wish this show was going to keep airing all summer long!

Before that line was just so ridiculously definitive L&O. The sounds and images of road construction and street repair while the leads recap the case while buying a hot dog. I just described it with words but words can't describe the feeling it evoked in me.

Needless to say, I've been watching L&O reruns since the days when A&E would have marathons. Ah, L&O reruns, Mission Impossible reruns, and Biography. Does anyone else remember life before modern reality television?

You know the other day I was just trying to figure out what happen to bill Curtis ..coz he was basically on every programs that was on A&E. Actually I was looking for Investigative report (hope I got the name right ) in the late 90 and then A&E stink to "Dog the bounty hunter"..and I never had watch that channel since...I watched all of the L&O from A&E rerun.

While Star Burns' death was a little tonally off, I did think that it was more than just a joke. The Study Group's self-centered ways tend to effect those around them, which is why everyone hates them, and this was the first time their antics led to something serious. I'm interested to see if/how they address his death in future episodes.

Really? I don't know, I almost thought it was halfway noble that they weren't willing to break their deal not to turn him for the meth lab. I suppose if they'd turned him in he wouldn't have gotten killed, but I wouldn't say they were responsible somehow...

I would certainly agree though that their self-centered ways affect those around them...but to me the the first episode with Todd was a much more blatant example of that. This seemed toned down a bit comparably speaking.

A fellow student building a meth lab implies that a) he needs meth or cash and b) he's either using or selling it. Both are violations of Federal drug policy (as in, if schools don't pursue a no-tolerance prosecution policy, their federal funds, including student loan guarantees, get pulled).

We can debate how the unreal environment of the school would make thinking about real life consequences ludicrous, but COMMUNITY has always relied on emotional truth when everything else is fantastic -- and that truth demanded someone caring enough about Alex to stop him.

They could have gotten him into rehab, or at least asked him if he had a problem, even if they didn't turn him in for stealing. They can work to pay off Abed's celebrity impersonation debt, but not ask Alex if he needed cash to dig himself out of a life-threatening hole. I think they were at fault, and that we were meant to think that.

@AMGI hear what you're saying, but the way I see it is the only thing the Study Group cared about was their grade, and the episode was a joke that got out of hand. If they hadn't asked Star Burns to "testify," then Todd's uncle wouldn't have threatened him with the real cops, and he wouldn't have been on the run in the first place. So, while they didn't actually kill him, their selfish ways were indirectly responsible for his death.

While the death was a shock, it was the touch that made this episode great.

The jarring note was learning that Star Burns was building a *Meth Lab* in the first place. I don't know about others, but that really threw me at first. But then I got sucked back into the 'Community' spirit - Troy and Abed aren't cops, the Biology class isn't a courtroom, it's all make-believe, right? Except it wasn't, and in the end someone died.

Wow. That was a good episode that took 'meta' to a whole new level.

Pointing fingers at the Study Group is missing the point. It was about how we the audience could get side-tracked into investing in the trivial issue of the yam and spotting all the pop-culture references* when Star Burns was heading towards his death.

*Although it's clear I missed a few and am going to have to go back and try to spot them for myself.

Marcos--I think I missed that he was actually "fleeing"; I thought he was just driving to and from home/school as usual and was in a normal fender bender with terrible consequences given the trunks contents. I still see it as indirect, as you say, and wouldn't go as far as to say "responsible."

Similarly, CGEYE, I don't think you can say someone is responsible for not going above and beyond to try to save an acquaintance from themselves. Sure, they would be BETTER people if they'd done that (as they did with Neil in Dungeons and Dragons) but it would have felt out of the tone of the show to do a "very special episode" and tried to do a "don't do drugs" intervention with Starburns.

My guesss is that the actor (who is really a writer) wasn't too invested in continuing to appear on the show, they don't know how many eps they have left anyway, and they decided to go extreme for the sake of a joke, which was both out of the blue and quite well set-up. But I could be wrong. I guess we'll see if they try to go deeper with it in the remaining eps. I don't mean to sound callous, but since it is a show, and one with a rather ludicrous world constructed around it, I guess I'm not reading much into it.

@AMG - I agree that we probably shouldn't be reading too much into it. I guess my original reasoning for pointing it out had to do with the fact that his death could be so much more than a really dark joke, and it could lead to some interesting character development/growth for the Study Group. Like you said, we just have to wait and see.

I think you have to have watched lots of Law and Order. It was such a ridiculously pitch perfect ending that I don't even mind that Starburns is dead within the reality/mythology of the show. I've seen Adam Schiff pick up and put down that phone too many times. It's never good news.

CGEYE - Abed is their friend. Starburns is kind of a jerk who's been a drug dealer for years. Do you really consider helping your friend out who's gotten over his head in debt the same as helping out a guy who's been a drug dealer as long as you've known him?

CHARLES - I'm not sure how/why Starburns making a meth lab threw you. Did you not realize that Starburns was a drug dealer? We've known about his drug dealing since at least season 2 if not season 1. There have been multiple mentions of it before, including him getting kicked out of Biology for trying to get a Breaking Bad thing (a meth lab) going with the teacher.

CGEYE, I really hope you were being satirical or just playing devil's advocate. and if not, then I hope you take a vested interest in the well-being and nurturing of every casual acquaintance you've ever had in life from work to school to any possible social group you've been a member of. I can't begin to explain how ridiculous the notion sounds that the group is responsible for a grown man who they happen to attend community college with...as for his invoolvement in their "case" do you realize that even real police officers/prosecutors only offer the level of personal care and protection you're suggesting to the key witnesses in CAPITAL offenses like 1st degree murder?? you should really adjust the perceptions you assign to TV characters

I get that this is the Internet, and therefore no one is encouraged to be a font of compassion, but under the rules of this episode -- that all of a sudden the Study Group can care about crime, albeit one perpetrated against a yam -- doesn't such caring also encompass making a choice about helping a drug dealer with his work, or helping him get out of it, or turning him in? Weren't those moral choices worth examining, at least before a reset button is pushed?

They (and possibly the Dean) looked the other way for months, if not years, and during the one episode where they would have been justified in stepping in and stopping a real threat to their school -- unless you think selling meth in a school where minors attend is a laff riot -- they cared more about a yam.

If this series can seriously examine just how much of a shit Pierce is, and why, it can examine how the S.G. use Pierce and Britta as guides to the level of selfishness they can get away with, and how they now have Alex as one more standard for their callousness.

And, lest we forget, the S.G. gave a great deal of assistance, legally, to Alex -- they let him keep the materials he stole, and didn't rat him out. I think that was the wrong choice, and that we're okay to think that.

On a human level, what's the more important story -- that of a partially-boiled yam, or a man openly selling drugs whose life was less important than that yam's?

Those two have become really shallow characters lately (and don't give me nonsense about the Troy/Britta stuff being important, it came off of her being locked in a room to avoid getting back with her deadbeat ex).

Yet oddly enough, they're two of the funniest characters. It's weird how there's that disconnect. Shirley, for instance, actually gets some significant emotional moments, but she's the main cast member who least makes me laugh.

This was one of my favorite episodes. 1) I was literally laughing out loud throughout this entire episode 2) Being a huge Law and Order fan (half the reason I went to law school) everything was perfect) and 3) Abed isn't being an asshole like he has been this season. Amazing episode

Loved it. Fell off my chair laughing; I used to love L&O back in the day and this was so pitch-perfect I saw shades of Briscoe in Abed. The only jarring thing was the non-official theme tune - just the opener set it up so perfectly that I was a little surprised not to hear the song I expected.

The themesong was so perfect, the L&O style was so perfect that it was the second listen before I noticed the Community theme in it, but when I realized it was an L&Oization of the Community theme it made it even better.

I literally did a frakking Snoopy dance when Dr. Rodgers was expositioning over the chopped tuber -- and Michael Ironside only made it better. Has he ever done sitcom work, before now?

L&O's still my bedtime story, so part of this was saying, "no, I'm not drifting off, this is really being aired" -- then I stayed on to see Jon Hamm's first bit on live 30 ROCK, and I knew I was awake.

I'm in the minority, but I haven't been very entertained by any of the post-hiatus episodes, this one included. They just don't have the same life and charm I remember older eps having. Every episode has to be some kind of too cool event, rather than just following the gang around as they say funny things and become closer as friends. The lack of Pierce hurt tonight as well--everything he says is hilarious. He had like a 25 second scene tonight and got the biggest, possible only, laugh of the episode (mixing gambling with racism).

Lastly, and I'm probably alone, but Michael K Williams does not do much for this show. It's stunt casting, and they should've gotten either a comedic actor (Rob Huebl?) or a serious dramatic actor (why hasn't Jeff Goldblum been on this show yet?). Williams is clearly an amateur out of his depth, you can see him acting and trying to hide the fact that he's acting--it's just bad, especially next to such naturally confident actors. Williams was great as Omar, because he was playing a heightened version of himself (trading Flatbush for Bawlmer, and anteing up the, uh, murdering). But he sucks on Community.